At Democratic convention, activists focus on Jewish swing voters

by ron kampeas, jta

Follow j. on

and

charlotte, n.c. | Jewish swing voters could make or break President Barack Obama’s bid for reelection.

At least that’s the case that Democratic Party leaders made in a training session that packed one of the larger halls at the convention center here Sept. 3, the day before the formal start of the Democratic National Convention.

It came with a message delivered to Jewish volunteers: Some Jewish voters matter more than others. And when it comes to issues, Israel is especially important — but don’t forget domestic policy.

Both parties are aggressively targeting Jewish voters in swing states. Next week, the Republican Jewish Coalition will conduct a voter outreach drive in South Florida, Cleveland and Philadelphia. The blitz, part of a $6.5 million RJC effort to sway Jewish voters, will be based on prior polling that will “micro-target” Jewish undecided voters.

David Harris, the president of the National Jewish Democratic Council, speaks to a British journalist outside the NJDC bus in Charlotte, N.C., the site of the Democratic National Convention. photo/jta-ron kampeas

Despite their relatively small number in America — approximately 2 percent of the population — Jews remain a key electoral demographic.

A drop in support for Obama from the approximate 75 percent of the Jewish vote that he received in 2008 to 65 percent this year would cost him 83,500 votes in Florida, 41,500 in Pennsylvania and 19,000 in Ohio, according to Forman. The figures were based on educated guesses about eligibility and voter turnout.

The most recent Gallup tracking polls of Jewish voters, from June and July, had Obama at 68 percent of the vote — ahead of the 61 percent he was polling in July 2008, when he was facing Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The speakers at the Sept. 3 event said that Jewish swing voters care about Obama’s Israel policies, though their principal concerns are the economy, health care and social issues such as abortion rights.

Forman counseled volunteers to sway undecided voters by talking about domestic policy, where Democrats believe they have a sharp advantage.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the DNC chairwoman and the party’s highest-ranking Jewish member, said Republicans hammer on the Israel issue because the Republican Party has little common ground with Jewish voters on domestic policy.

“The natural political home for Jewish voters in this country is with the Democratic Party,” she said.

Republicans cite shifting Jewish demographics and voter patterns — including the increasingly large Orthodox community, which is more politically conservative than other Jewish denominations — as evidence that is changing.

The Sept. 3 training session indicated that the campaign waged by Republicans to depict Obama as lacking commitment to Israel has had an impact. Democrats unveiled an eight-minute video titled “Steadfast” that features an array of Israeli leaders, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, extolling what is depicted as an unprecedented level of cooperation on defense and intelligence sharing with the Obama administration.

Also featured in talking points handed out to attendees were the Obama administration’s efforts to isolate Iran, including intensified sanctions.

Republicans acknowledge the close relationship between the Israeli and U.S. administrations on defense, but say that Obama has undercut its benefits by making public his disagreements with Israel over peacemaking with the Palestinians. They also say that he has not made it sufficiently clear that Iran could face a military strike from Israel or the United States.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has suggested that he would not stand in the way of an Israeli strike, while Obama administration officials have spent recent months in intensive talks with Israelis hoping to head off such a strike.

Indeed, Wasserman Schultz, in making the case for Obama’s Iran policy, repeated a talking point that distinguishes the Democratic position, which counsels military force as a last resort: She praised Obama for “making sure that all options are on the table, but making sure that the military option is the last, not the first, one.”

Volunteers at the session agreed that the Israel component was critical to swaying the undecided voters among their friends.

Cynthia Johnson, 56, a publicist from Portland, Ore., said she attended because she was finding that some of her Jewish friends were wavering, particularly over the Israel issue.

“That was the one concern I wanted to be able to address,” said Johnson, who is not Jewish.

Ellen Blaine, 52, a public health professional from Charlotte, said she needed tools to counter misconceptions about Obama’s relations with Jews and Israel.